Colloquium Detail

Possible Evidence for Variations in the Fine Structure Constant

Date:
10/30/2001

Art Wolfe
Professor, UC San Diego

Analysis of 49 quasar absorption systems covering the redshift in inteval
0.5 < z < 3.5 provides statistical evidence for a smaller alpha at
earlier epochs: delta alpha/alpha = (-0.72+-0.18)x10^{-5}. The constraints
on alpha come from simultaneous fitting of absorption lines arising from
the following species: Mg I, Mg II, Al III, Si II, Cr II, Fe II, Ni II,
and Zn II. A thorough investigation for systematic effects reveals
none which can explain these results. The most significant of these,
if removed from the data, would make our result even more significant.